Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. (NYSE: DNB) is an American public company headquartered in Short Hills, a community in Millburn, New Jersey, US[4] that provides commercial data to businesses on credit history, business-to-business sales and marketing, counterparty risk exposure, supply chain management, lead scoring and social identity matching.[5] Often referred to as D&B, the company’s database contains information on more than 235 million companies across 200 countries worldwide.[3] Dun & Bradstreet has been listed on the Fortune 500 and was one of the first companies to be publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange.[6][7]

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Dun & Bradstreet traces its history back to July 20, 1841, with the formation of The Mercantile Agency in New York City by Lewis Tappan, later called R.G. Dun & Company.[8] The company was formed to create a network of correspondents who would provide reliable, objective credit information. In 1933, Dun merged with competitor John M. Bradstreet to form today's Dun & Bradstreet.[9] The Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) was invented in 1962.[10]

On February 5, 2003, Dun & Bradstreet restated prior period results to correct timing errors in the recognition of some of the revenue associated with 14 of the Company's 200+ products, after a review of its revenue recognition from 1997 through 2002.[11]

Dun & Bradstreet maintains a database of over 240 million companies globally[3] and over 100 million professional contact names using a variety of sources including public records, trade references, telco providers, telephone interviews, print, digital and trade publications, among others.[12] The company derives revenues through subscriptions as well as pay-per-business report, and to a smaller extent, third-party licensing agreements. Additional revenue is derived from business subsidiaries including Hoover's.[13]

The FTC has filed suit against Dun & Bradstreet for seeking a monopoly on educational databases.[14] The General Services Administration has suggested that Dun & Bradstreet's monopoly on company registration numbers needed to do business with the United States Federal government has led to an increase in its costs.[15][16]

In December, 2012, O&R Construction LLC accused Dun & Bradstreet of "conspiring to use high pressure sales tactics to create a monopoly in the small business credit reporting market."[17] This case was dismissed in August, 2013 by U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly citing lack of evidence.[18] In January, 2014, the same district court judge ruled that an amended class action suit may go forward. This suit apparently alleges that Dun & Bradstreet orchestrates "a scheme to falsify credit reports in order to defame and cause significant harm to small businesses." [19]

On March 4, 2015, Tranis Cates and Andrew Allison filed a lawsuit against Dun & Bradstreet, alleging "the company called the consumers and businesses without receiving prior permission to make those calls."[20] A website has been set up to track lawsuits against Dun & Bradstreet.[21]

Risk management products include the Business Information Report, Comprehensive Report, D&B Direct and the DNBi platform, often offered to listed participants as a way to improve their rating. These solutions provide current and historical business information primarily used for third party marketing.[29]

Sales and marketing products such as the DUNS Market Identifier database, Optimizer, D&B 360 and D&B Professional Contacts provide sales and marketing professionals with business data for both prospecting and CRM activity. In the DNBi platform customers can view ECF reports, decision based on data, view alerts.[30][31]